Kaizoku Oujo

The only thing that made me watch this was how the story was presented to me:

"A young child is traveling with her crew on a ship but it sinks in a battle. Years pass and she's trapped in an island and to survive she has no other option but to be a prostitute. One day she's sold to a man and she decides to make a run for it and is aided by two of her old crewmembers! And so it begins her pirate adventures!"

From this description, I assumed I'd get a pirate-themed story and a very serious, dark one because of all the ... rape themes that's clearly stated in the first few lines. Is that what we got? Absolutely not! I feel all the potential this premise had went down the drain.


Visuals:
1) not my cup of tea, particularly the noses
2) action scenes are beautifully animated
3) animation and dialog are sometimes out of sync

Audio:
1) dislike the soundtrack
2) voice acting legends together with inexperienced seiyuus but everyone gave a solid performance
3) terrible casting choice for Otto. The legendary Hiroaki Hirata doesn't fit Otto at all


Story and characters:
1) the premise required a more serious tone instead of trying to crack a joke every 5 seconds. Like, someone almost got raped half a second ago and no, it's not something to joke about
2) didn't find a single character to be captivating
3) terrible pacing
4) at first the story is about a victim of human trafficking escaping and become a pirate with her crew, then it shifts into this paranormal, fantasy kind of thing and then... no one knows what we're watching anymore
5) the ending feels very rushed and makes very little sense


This gets a 4/10 from me. Total waste of premise and setting.

Struggled between a 5 and 6 for this, but overall was pretty disappointed. For some reason, I'd started this with the expectation it would have some similarities to Yona of the Dawn, either in characters, story or execution. And it did originally give off that vibe, then went elsewhere, which isn't bad in itself... just, if you're starting it for that reason, find something else.

I can admit, the first couple of episodes were really good. I'd go as far as to say the first half of the show was good. I binged it easy, but then started to slow down cause I had started ... it whilst it was still airing and didn't want to watch it episode by episode, so waited.

Maybe it's just because I'm on an anime burnout? I don't know, my interest of it started to drop.

But, the good things about this anime are the soundtrack for one. I LOVE the sound and some of the visuals are stunning. One scene in particular gave me goosebumps (either the last episode or the episode before) in terms of meaning and visuals. The characters are super fun but they're nothing new. I think this is genuinely down to me having watched enough anime to notice the typical character tropes. And the FL and ML are not any different from many other action/romance anime.

They're still fun though, so that's something. I particularly like one of the twins (deffo a personal thing) and Yukimaru did have some interesting character development. Not to mention his ears turning red is adorable lol. Fena was your classic "nice but not too nice" character. Tbf, she had an interesting relationship with Yukimaru. Not wholly original but not exactly copy and paste.

The art style was pretty basic, icl. Nothing special. The story felt a little all over the place and I ended up liking Helena and Abel so much more than Yukimaru and Fena, which should say a lot. I even cried over them. Fena's story felt... cold. It was boring, kinda confusing and just felt like it was made up by a child. I didn't enjoy it. Some parts of the story, I did, but overall? No.

Now, if they made an anime about Helena and Abel completely, THAT would've been interesting. With Fena in the background of course, but I'd personally like to see a story like that (open to recommendations <3) from the "villain's" POV. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and after writing this review, I've decided that I'm changing my rating between a 4 and a 5.

For something that had a unique and interesting premise, this severely did not deliver.

Fena was a princess...a witch...a prostitute...a maiden... a pirate...pretty much anything you can think of, she was. Not only was this confusing for the audience, it was confusing for Fena. In one episode, she explained that she had all these coined names given to her, but despite that, she didn't know who she really was. And dejectedly, the ending didn't answer that for us.

As a protagonist, because she was unaware of her own purpose in the world, she often relied on others to get where she needed to go. Even ... when she had moments of "clarity," if you will, when she no longer doubted her choices, it seemed as though it was not really Fena making the decision, but rather an entity possessing/guiding her, if you will. Which, was somewhat confirmed in the end. And despite the fact that Fena was clearly on a journey of self-discovery, we, as the audience, aren't shown any of her character development. We don't know her as a person at the beginning, and we don't know by the end.

The side characters were alright. They served their purpose of moving the story along, but many ended up being poorly executed, such as Abel. He had much potential, but his storyline made him irrelevant by his end.

The love interest - Yukimaru, I liked well enough, but I didn't love him.

The plot started off exciting. I enjoyed the first couple of episodes and couldn't wait to see how things would unfold. Sadly, this suffered the fate of too many storylines and resulted in a convoluted and unresolved mess. The end didn't explain anything to me. If anything, it only brought on more questions. I think they were trying too hard to be different, to be emotional, and bring on this "shock value," but it failed.

This was very disappointing. It had a lot to offer and delivered none of it.

Talk about a tone shift towards the end. I know people hate the comparison, but all I could think about while watching this show is how I could have been watching season 2 of Yona of the Dawn, only to remember that there is no season 2. I went into this show hoping it could at least give me something similar to enjoy and it honestly had that at first until the story took a dramatic turn and devolved into “Fena does amazing things because ancestors, please stand in awe” the series.

By the end of the show, I honestly couldn’t remember most of the ninja ... pirates’ names. Most of their personalities were one-note and every single one of them, with the initial exception of Shitan, were there to bask in Fena’s presence. And I swear, this show just straight up forgot they had a dog.

Like others have said, this show really needed 24-episodes. Some of the best material was in those earlier episodes when the characters were sailing the seas and had adventures in various ports. The ending, as rushed as it was, was somewhat open-ended with room for a season 2. As much as I didn’t enjoy this show, a season 2 would absolutely help these puddle-deep characters.

Why isn't this anime called Clichézoku Oujo??
First above all, animation execution. Taking the story aside, the art, it will really bewitch you. The animation is fantastic, and you will enjoy it. Now is not that it is a masterful work of art, is that it is a style that can be considered considerably above the level of most common and popular anime out there. Sum to that the music and you will definitely feel like you are watching a movie.
But, the story is not flawless. Perhaps is a refreshing story and for that you can give it a try, after all is not always ... that we get a proper anime story about pirates and seafarers from the early modern-age of human civilization. Honestly, I began watching it because I had curiosity of how they were wrapping up some nice common folklore and myths from that period too (I won't spoil anything, sorry). And, as a veteran, is hard for me to be amused solely by a wonderful animated execution. So, in a nutshell, is not bad, but the story telling is so generic that I cannot be intrigued by it anymore. I am just kind of going with the flow just to watch a good animated story, I am true to myself, watching a good animation is truly satisfying. Because that's pretty much what is highlighted from Kaizoku Oujo. Is beautifully animated. But the story is super cliché filled with cliché characters and doped with cliché moments.
Frankly I will not complain about the animation, but about the story and the main script, that's another different matter. If you have nothing else to watch, you can watch this.
Overall score: 7/10

Dreadfully boring from the start. Character development never comes for anyone. Yukimaru is a statue and Fena is his porcelain doll that he shrugs off at every turn until she needs saving. Everyone is a carbon copy you know them the moment you lay eyes on them and the show ends the same.(I skimmed through the last ep)

At first I thought, maybe this show is for pre-teen girls? Like Snow White with Red Hair and Yona of the Dawn, which I personally loved. Then comes a naked woman's chest pressing against a dudes back. That's when I realized it's MEANT for adults. This shallow ... excuse of a story plot and characters is meant for adults. (FYI I started skimming through it after episode 6)

The randomly hidden Japanese island and industrial revolution stuff had me for a loop too. It tricked me into thinking this was set in a fantasy world similar to ours. It didn't really bother me that much after awhile cause anime logic can be every fun, but I personally think the story would have been slightly more interesting if it were set in a fantasy world. The industrial revolution stuff also reminded me of ATLA which I love very much, but there was purpose for it, here there is N O N E. Except selling a lighter from WWII(?)

The only recommendation I can make is the opening and ending themes, look those up when you have the time. Also if you want to watch a good pirate movie I recommend the one everyone has already seen "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Yukimaru! Y U K I M A R U!!!!!!!!x100 I'll never forget that statue's name. Fena never stops calling for him and he for her.

If you're looking for a disney princess story written by someone who doesn't actually spend any time with women, then this is the story for you.


STORY: 4

Between the wacked out geography - how, exactly, does a ninja family shipwreck in Europe? - the weird history twisting that adds nothing whatsoever other than to remind us that Japanese content has a love affair with Joan of Arc, this series just feels like they threw tropes at a wall and caught the one that fell.


ART: 9

Honestly, the art ranges from gorgeous to glorious and the character designs are a cool mesh of true historic costuming and steampunk ... with a twist, which is exactly what the characters and setting call for.

The settings are so varied and creative, yet fit both the time period and the history revision concept. They're incredibly detailed and well thought out, particularly the ships, it's hard not to love them on sight.

CHARACTER; 5

Ugh.


It's blatanatly obvious whoever wrote poor Fena's character hasn't spent a lot of time with women. She's only traumatized when it make the men look like heroes. She's completely incapable of doing anything worthwhile to the plot unless she's basically magically hypnotized, which is horrifying. She knows medicine and healing but that only comes up to make the men look tough because they "don't need it", rendering her even more useless. I can't even argue she's a Mary Sue, because she's so utterly boring she almost might as well been replaced by a talking dog.


The Ninjas, at least, are a collection of quirky - if painfully tropey - characters. The twins are just Japanese Weasleys. Karen is your usual mad inventor token female. Yukimaru is the stoic love interest who blushes on his ears, because he has to show emotion somewhere, I guess.

Sadly, the entire ship full of actually powerful, cool women are pretty well reduced to villainous idiots. Ugh.



SOUND: 7

They clearly spent a bit too much on impressively loud canon blasts, solid OP and ED songs, and a good acting cast. A shame, when the score is composed of far too much basic piano music and cheesy one-liners.

At first, the show had a strong start and seemed like it was going to tell a compelling and interesting mystery, romance, and adventure story. The more the plot unfolded the more interesting it became, especially when antagonists were introduced. However, the end of the story felt rushed and wasn't explained well. There wasn't enough backstory or development on the characters to understand their motivations and connection to the main character, except for Yukimaru, and the last episode was essentially an explanation dump that left more questions than answers. Overall, the anime should have had better pacing, more character development, and a better idea of ... what it was trying to get across when it came to the ending - let alone what it was trying to say as a story.

Was this show made for 6 year old kids? It feels like a Disney movie but in anime format, and not in a good way. You know Onward? Basically, a movie with no merit to it other than high budget animation, but it basically boils down to "generic fantasy plot A" and children love it because it looks good and the characters are so funny and expressive!
Kaizoku Oujo actually deals with some heavy themes. Prostitution, greed, I mean, it's called Pirate Princess. You'd think there'd be a lot more cut-throat stuff happening, like Vinland Saga level, but no, it's pretty PG as far as any ... sort of characters and dialogue are concerned.
Again, our princess is sold to prostitution in the very beginning, and instead of portraying her as a jaded veteran that has lost all hope to escape, she's instead portrayed as a 16 year old (or whatever the hell her age is) with a 6 year old's intelligence. Over and over again, it feels really PG. Even when they're escaping, rather than running away like her life depends on it, the show decides to slap a funny scene instead, where Otto reads the map wrong! haha! so funny!!!!
Sure, you could argue that One Piece also deals with the same themes, yet is also pretty PG. You're not wrong, but even in One Piece, there's a lot more blood and violence than Kaizoku Oujo has. Plus, Luffy is dumb like our main character here, but he actually can fend for himself rather than a damsel in distress with a retinue of ninjas protecting her. Luffy also shows some surprisingly mature moments sometimes, but has that ever happened with Fena? She's basically being led along the entire way. Plus, I actually get attached to Luffy and his crew, since there's a lot more time invested into each character of his crew, rather than the mess that Kaizoku Oujo is.
I get that the animation is good. It is good, but Disney level good? Probably not. With a plot and character lineup that somehow pales in comparison to the likes of Frozen and Onward, good animation doesn't cut it.

I love this series. I love me some adventure shoujo like Akatsuki no Yona or Shirayuki hime. Despite my immense love for the story I've read a lot of low reviews on other anime streaming sites but I don't particularly mind since it is true that the entire series could've paced better.

Personally, I do agree that there are A LOT of things left untouched and A LOT of questions still remain (hence why I said the pacing could've been better). But I love the overall vibe of the series so I couldn't really be bothered with all that detail ig? All the characters are ... very likable and the Fena x Yukimaru is a dream ship.

So just watch all 12 episodes and you decide for yourself. But I honestly want a season 2 to maybe further do justice to the awesomeness of how the story began in episode 1 compared to the proceeding episodes? Either way, I just wanna see Fena and Yukimaru again :(((

Also, I think they should've just made this into a 1-2 hour movie instead of a 12-series show. They probably could've improved the pacing and plot execution better.

JUST FINISHED THIS ANIME and let me just say I really wish I could rate this anime a 10/10. I can't because as much as I loved nearly every aspect of it, the ending was TOO MUCH, too fantastical for the very little time they had and considering the things they had already established. If the series had 24 episodes and they were able to flesh out certain characters and plot holes and especially the last 4 episodes a bit more, I would have easily given this a 10/10.

I am a very simple person and am a sucker for pretty things so I will say ... that this anime is so visually pleasing. I don't even know when the last time I watched something so stunning was. I am also a very musical person so I thought the OST was beautiful and it really elevated the animation and just the vibes of the show. It is hard for me to critique plot in general, but I will say that it has so much potential. While the last few episodes felt rushed and a bit disconnected IMO, each major plot point of the final episodes was so interesting so I think it's a shame that they had to squish complex plot points into single episodes.

I would say that if you're considering watching this anime, definitely give it a shot...unless you're super picky/highly critical. You can definitely tell that this show is a high-production one, but is definitely rushed because there are only twelve episodes. Because of this, there was definitely not as much fulfilling character development and characterization as you would want for a show that is clearly putting a lot of effort into its sound and visual department. There are also quite a few plot holes by the end, which is a bit annoying considering how certain characters/issues are brushed off fairly quickly later on despite them having a heavy influence on the plot earlier on.

I rate things fairly high in comparison to other people but I would give this a 7.7/10. I fell in love with the animation and OST and the storyline had me on the edge of my seat as I binged the series. Had I seen the series live, I definitely would not be as generous considering how agonizing getting to the climax of the story was.

You could say I was fished by the clips on Crunchyroll's YouTube channel.

You can tell there is serious money invested in this production. While I would probably give the visual edge to Kyoto or Shaft, this is seriously impressive animation quality and dedication. Every character is well-designed, and animated without the usual shortcuts like "just the mouths but not the jaws", resulting in a cast that has emotional depth and movements you'd expect from a Ghibli feature film. Some of the firearms used by the characters are intricate and display a level of artistic creativity rarely seen in anime.

Likewise, the audio is fantastically produced. The ... soundtrack teleports us to a fantasy world where El Dorado and Eden are real places, where the line between divinity and magic are blurred in this quasi-historical fantasy (more on that in a bit). The acting performances are likewise great, especially recurring villain actor Toshiyuki Morikawa.

Alas, this is a production that in my opinion threw a lot of money on a weak story and characterization. Turn this into a novel without any of the flashy visuals and audio, and I'm sure it's not much different than any dime-a-dozen novel that tried to mash together a pirate adventure with Indiana Jones and a rather tortured interpretation of Bible stories that came out of a mind that only read The Da Vinci Code. There's no real theme to the work other than, I dunno, a weak "friendship" or "camaraderie" undercurrent that might have been better fleshed out over 2 cours rather than a 2-minute montage in one episode. And the characters, oh, where to begin. First of all, what exactly is the point of the lady pirate crew if the Royal Navy was plenty barbaric and evil in the show? Our "heroine" is a damsel in distress mashed with a hero of destiny, constantly getting herself captured and her comrades hurt. Her raison d'etre and the villain's motivation are, like the plot, a messy melodrama that reads like an adult manga artist's fantasy of how the life of Jeanne d'Arc went. This killed the "adventure" aspect of the show right off, it's honestly mildly infuriating and I'm not even French; it's like the premise of the show are the trumped-up charges the English brought against Joan of Arc. You get the impression that at least one of the production committee members wanted to see that fantasy in all its lurid detail for pure shock value and to titillate the young men in the audience, and frankly that kind of manipulative buzz inducement is everything wrong with recent anime production.

My advice to these guys: If you're going to make another season, focus on the submarine crew and their captain.

There are plenty of reviews but I wish to add to them regardless because I believe this show requires more recognition than it has gotten.

*Non-Spoiler Review*

Story - 7
The story is good, but nothing mind-blowing. I will say it is a satisfying story, however. In that it had me hooked and I enjoyed the whole thing, even with a satisfying ending. But it isn't above & beyond. So I'm giving this a 7. There were also elements to this story I never expected to pop up, and it was honestly a good surprise to enjoy.

Art & Characters - 10
This is a high score, ... yes, but it's because I genuinely love the animation, art, and the character design (both visually and story-wise). There are some troupes here and there, but mostly I felt the choice in character personalities and the various animation decisions for those characters in key moments really pulled everything together. I'm a sucker for good characters, especially supporting cast. So these two points really did make me quite happy! There isn't a lot of character progression in anyone but the main characters, but it's also to be expected from a short series such as this.

Sound, Enjoyment, and Overall: 8
In my own personal spreadsheet I have this at a 9, but I do recognize it might not be THAT good and I may be a bit biased. So I think 8 is a very fair score when looking at overall enjoyment, quality, design, ect. This show very much delighted me and had me hooked (I ended up watching it all in one day. Oops!) I'm not sure what is left to say but that I enjoyed it quite a lot and was surprised by how good it ended up being.

Hope this helps, and I hope folks out there give it a shot.

Cheers!

The main character and Shitan were annoying. The adventure was supposed to be long and perilous but it seems like everything fell right into everyone's lap. And the pacing of this anime was also very awkward.

The only character I liked and kept me watching this anime were the side characters; especially Yukimaru. Its such a shame that we only got to learn more about Fena, Yukimaru, and the antagonists. Everyone else were pretty much tools to progress the story aka plot armor. BUT Fena to me, was not worth protecting. The only thing "useful" about her were memories that weren't really hers. She never really ... developed into a stronger or into HER ideal character throughout what they described as a long journey. It was just painful to watch her in all honesty. The only problem she had was her dispute between Shitan who suddenly changed character out of nowhere and herself. So pretty much she's just a terribly written Mary Sue.

The journey itself was plain. I feel like the creators were trying to show off their beautiful art which I admit was very lovely to look at. But thats it. The plot during the journey was plain because it was SO easy. Fena's implanted memories became utter bull to me. The longer they used this concept, the more I felt determined to skim through. Maybe if they had more episodes in the anime, then maybe they could have fit more plot and plot holes.

Overall, this entire anime was simply awkward. If you're interested in pretty art, animation, and pretty music WITHOUT the plot, then by all means go watch. But this was a disappointment to me.

PS: The romance bits were weak so don't expect too much.

The truth is, the animation is incredible, it is a work of art how well I hope all the animes had at least half of the animation that this anime has. The truth is very very beautiful visually, the development of characters is also incredibly good, it has a lot of coherence as the characters are composed and the soundtrack accompanies the animation a lot. One of the best animation of the year in my opinion. I did not like the end very much but the last scene is incredible how beautiful it is for God. A caress to the soul is this anime please ... watch it if you want to see pirate ninjas.


En español:
La verdad la animacion es incrible, es un obra de arte lo bien que se ojala todos los animes tuviera por lo menos la mitad de la animacion que tiene este anime. La verdad muy muy lindo visualmente, el desarrollo de personjes tambien es incrieblemente bueno tiene muchisima coherencia como esta compuestas los persoanjesy la banda sonora acompaña un monton la animacion. Una de las mejores animacion del año en mi opinion. El final no me gusto mucho pero la ultima escena es increible lo linda que es por dios. Una caricia al alma es este anime por favor miralo si queres ver ninjas piratas.

SOME SPOILERS

I genuinely don't feel like typing out how this show completely fell apart in the latter half. Most of my complaints come from Fena. The main character, the star of the show, is the girl with the plan.

Oh wait..., she's annoying. Also, the title of the show is kind of a lie. The show is about pirates but all Fena does is be there to be with Yukimaru. She also doesn't;t do much pirate stuff. She just hangs with pirates.

Long story short the last two episodes though animated pretty well. were just dumb, especially the part where Fena loses her memory because of the ... plot. All to just shit on the main ship (get it) of the show by cutting the kiss at the end. I stayed up until 12 to watch this on Toonami. I want my sleep schedule back dammit!

Final rating 5/10

This anime is the "it could've been great but..." kind, because it really had great animation, great sound effects, the characters seemed to have a lot of potential, but two things happened that made this just barely decent. First the pacing, it's so slow that I wouldn't blame you if you give up this anime halfway through for its monotony. In my opinion this anime's story was better suit for a movie, as condensing this into 120 minutes would have made this less boring, because it has entertaining stuff, but each good bit is in between large pieces of nothingness. The second thing was the ... end, I'm not spoiling you anything, but you have to know that it's disappointing for two reasons, the destiny of the main villain, and the feeling of bewilderment the series finale gives.



Overall, the anime is not bad, but I think it took itself to seriously, like it wanted to be the next great thing, but it was just above average. This anime is the literal meaning of mediocrity.

Whoever thinks "Deepening" Elements are enough to create some one-of-a-kind story, will eventualy end up with a choppy plot like this. Many things mentioned got totally ignored ((SPOILER: such as the guy who was supposed to follow defiants, the reflection of the two paths allthough pictured twice)), ending feels somewhat out of context and till now I'm not sure if authors did themself agree to what they should have assigned the goal of the story(Eden here) and for which moral. Also, except -arguably- Shitan, every other character was one dimensional to the point that it became annoying especially with the pitiful try of showing flashbacks ... of some characters.
BGMs, allthough not very original, are neat and well used. The animations were good but backgrounds were sometimes "too static" and doesn't harmonize with them.

This is another anime that has so much potential to being a great anime, yet falls short with an absolutely abysmal ending.

Art makes this anime worth watching and kept me in it, but the choices made as to how the story flows... leaves me unsatisfied. Characters are strong with a nice variety of tropes you can attach yourself to as a viewer. It would be interesting to see how this develops if there are more episodes and they get into a stronger world building style of writing.

The action sequences are really nice, reminds me of a Samurai Champloo style and does not give you ... that annoying 10 minutes fight scenes that are nonsense filler. I really hope this is a new era of pirate style animes that were so popular in the early 00's and I can see potential.

This anime's first few episodes present a great promise that it simply doesn't deliver upon as the ""story"" progresses. While visually nice with some equally nice background ost, the more you watch it, the more you realize looking out of your window is more fun.

Timing and the characters are the series' biggest weaknesses. With how it's written, this show needed more time to tell its story and develop its characters, and that sadly shows and affects the watching experience.

The pacing is abysmal. The plot moves too fast to the point where it feels like nothing happening at all, and the way it advances is ... just so unsatisfying and underwhelming. It relies solely on Fena's memories and her memories alone... and that overused plot-point gets old REAL fast. What happened to show, not tell?

Any romance that isn't hammered in within the last few episodes is practically non-existent. As a result, Yukimura and Fena have little to no connection despite their shared past, while the rest of the crew grow to care for Fena, to the point of risking their lives for her, way too soon and way too easily--to the point where it actually feels like she's bewitched them.

To put it all simply, everything is flat. The characters, the plot, the conclusion... everything--it's all flat and lackluster and that really makes you not care what happens in the end. Everyone has the same range of emotions as a peanut, and for that reason, I can't recommend this show to anyone nor see myself watching it again.